[The editors] have obeyed, though with great joy, the strong current of thought and feeling, which, for a few years past, has led many sincere persons in New England to make new demands on literature, and to reprobate that rigor of our conventions of religion and education which is turning us to stone, which renounces hope, which looks only backward, which asks only such a future as the past, which suspects improvement, and holds nothing so much in horror as new views and the dreams of youth.

…. No one can converse much with different classes of society in New England, without remarking the progress of a revolution. Those who share in it have no external organization, no badge, no creed, no name. They do not vote, or print, or even meet together. They do not know each others' faces or names. They are united only in a common love of truth, and love of its work…. [T]hey have silently given in their several adherence to a new hope, and in all companies do signify a greater trust in the nature and resources of man, than the laws or the popular opinions will well allow.

Emerson, in his introduction to the very first issue of The Dial when it burst onto the scene in 1840, talks here about revolution. The Transcendentalist revolution, of course. He's announcing that there are new kids on the block. And they're here to seek out the Truth.

Emerson presents the journal as an antidote, or a way superior alternative, to the social conventions he and other Transcendentalists believed were corrupting American society. The aim of the journal was to present new ideas and provide fresh ways of thinking about everything from religion to politics to society. Sounds like a revolution to us.

In this intro, we'll find Emerson's eloquence at full blast. On the one hand, he emphasizes that the journal doesn't represent an "official" movement or a group of people. That just wouldn't be stickin' it to the man. On the other hand, it does give voice to alternative views and perspectives which don't usually get aired in mainstream publications. So like a group for the groupless.

The Dial itself worked well as a platform for the Transcendentalists because it allowed for individuality within unity. Each writer could present his or her own individual perspective or view, all within that great big broader framework (the journal) which allowed for other perspectives and views, too.

Writers didn't necessarily always agree with one another, but they did share many of the core Transcendentalist beliefs. The key one? That they were part of this revolution and it was going to change society. Now that's dialing up the inspiration.